Page 18 THE REVERE ADVOCATE – FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 2023 BEACON | FROM Page 16 session each week. Many legislators say that legislative sessions are only one aspect of the Legislature’s job and that a lot of important work is done outside of the House and Senate chambers. They note that their jobs also involve committee work, research, constituent work and other matters that are important to their districts. Critics say that the Legislature does not meet regularly or long enough to debate and vote in public view on the thousands of pieces of legislation that have been fi led. They note that the infrequency and brief length of sessions are misguided and lead to irresponsible ~ Home of the Week ~ SAUGUS....1st AD - OPEN HOUSE WEEKEND! Perfectly located and cared-for Colonial style home features 6 rooms, 3 bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths, living room, dining room with built-in cabinet and garage with loft storage and attached screen house for summer enjoyment, updated gas heat, large, level neighborhood. Welcome Home to Taylor Street!! View the interior of this home right on your smartphone. COMMERCIAL & RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY SALES & RENTALS Happy Spring Sandy Juliano Broker/President EVERETT 5 & 6 room, 2 family, $850,000. Please call Sandy 617-448-0854. 3 Bedroom, 617-448-0854. Open Daily From 10:00 A.M. - 5:00 P.M. 433 Broadway, Suite B, Everett, MA 02149 www.jrs-properties.com Joe DiNuzzo 617-680-7610 Rosemarie Ciampi 617-957-9222 Follow Us On: Norma Capuano Parziale 617-590-9143 late-night sessions and a mad rush to act on dozens of bills in the days immediately preceding the end of an annual session. During the week of April 1721, the House met for a total of 25 minutes while the Senate met for a total of 35 minutes. Mon. April 17 No House session No Senate session Tues. April 18 House 11:04 a.m. to 11:19 a.m. Senate 11:10 a.m. to 11:21 a.m. Wed. April 19 No House session No Senate session Thurs. April 20 House 11:03 a.m. to 11:13 a.m. Senate 11:12 a.m. to 11:36 a.m. Fri. April 21 No House session No Senate session Bob Katzen welcomes feedback at bob@beaconhillrollcall. com Bob founded Beacon Hill Roll Call in 1975 and was inducted into the New England Newspaper and Press Association (NENPA) Hall of Fame in 2019 MASSHEALTH ELIGIBILITY OPERATIONS MEMO 23-12 M assHealth has just released this operations memo in order to be consistent with federal guidelines when calculating the value of life estates and corresponding remainder interests. This memo supersedes operations memos 19-12 and 20-16 eff ective immediately. This is an important operations memo as caseworkers will now have to utilize the IRS Section 7520 Interest Rate Tables in order to value these interests instead of the Social Security Administration POMS (Program Operations Manual System) tables. As a result, the value attributed to a life estate interest will be much lower utilizing the 7520 Interest Rate Tables as compared to the Social Security Administration (SSA) tables. If, for example, a married couple had deeded a vacation home to a child and reserved a life estate, and the vacation home was not being rented out in order to argue that it is necessary for self-support thereby rendering the life estate interest a non-countable asset, the SSA table calculation would result in a signifi - cantly higher valuation placed upon the life estate interest. That higher life estate interest could then result in the married couple being over the asset limit for MassHealth eligibility purposes. Furthermore, in the event Denise Matarazzo 617-953-3023 617-294-1041 For Advertising with Results, call The Advocate Newspapers at 781-286-8500 or Info@advocatenews.net the real estate was to be sold, a much higher value would be placed upon the life estate interest under the SSA table which would result in a signifi cant amount of cash going back in the name of the life tenant requiring a spend down on nursing home level care of that larger pool of cash. The calculation based upon the SSA table would result in less asset protection as a much smaller amount would be attributed to the remaindermen (i.e. the children). It should be noted that if rental real estate operates in a cash fl ow profi t position, the life estate interest with respect to that real estate will not be considered a countable asset. Upon the death of the life tenant, the real estate will escape estate recovery as MassHealth can only recover benefi ts paid from the probate estate of the recipient of the benefi ts. MassHealth will now use the IRS tables in order to calculate the amount of the gifted remainder interest for purposes of calculating the ineligibility period for MassHealth benefi ts. Once the fi ve year look-back period has expired, it does not matter how much the remainder interest was valued at. The Massachusetts Chapter of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys has worked hard to persuade MassHealth to issue this recent eligibility operations memo which in fact is consistent with how it valued life estates and remainder interests for many previous years. Joseph D. Cataldo is an Estate Planning/Elder Law Attorney, Certifi ed Public Accountant, Certifi ed Financial Planner, AICPA Personal Financial Specialist and holds a Master’s Degree in Taxation.
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